Gaming machines that provide players awards in primary or base games are well known. These gaming machines generally require a player to place a wager to activate a play of the primary game. For many of these gaming machines, any award provided to a player for a wagered-on play of a primary game is based on the player obtaining a winning symbol or a winning symbol combination and on an amount of the wager (e.g., the higher the amount of the wager, the higher the award). Winning symbols or winning symbol combinations that are less likely to occur typically result in higher awards being provided when they do occur.
For such known gaming machines, an amount of a wager placed on a primary game by a player may vary. For instance, a gaming machine may enable a player to wager a minimum quantity of credits, such as one credit (e.g., one cent, nickel, dime, quarter, or dollar), up to a maximum quantity of credits, such as five credits. The gaming machine may enable the player to place this wager a single time or multiple times for a single play of the primary game. For instance, a gaming machine configured to operate a slot game may have one or more paylines, and the gaming machine may enable a player to place a wager on each of the paylines for a single play of the slot game. Thus, it is known that a gaming machine, such as one configured to operate a slot game, may enable players to place wagers of substantially different amounts on each play of a primary game. For example, the amounts of the wagers may range from one credit up to 125 credits (e.g., five credits on each of twenty-five separate paylines). This is also true for other wagering games, such as video draw poker, in which players can place wagers of one or more credits on each hand, and in which multiple hands can be played simultaneously. Accordingly, it should be appreciated that different players play at substantially different wager amounts or levels and substantially different rates of play.
Bonus or secondary games are also known in gaming machines. Such gaming machines usually provide an award to a player for a play of one such bonus game in addition to any awards provided for any plays of any primary games. Bonus games usually do not require an additional wager to be placed by the player to be initiated. Bonus games are typically initiated or triggered upon an occurrence of a designated triggering symbol or designated triggering symbol combination in the primary game. For instance, a gaming machine may initiate or trigger a bonus game when a bonus symbol occurs on the payline on the third reel of a three reel slot machine. The gaming machine generally indicates when a bonus game is initiated or triggered through one or more visual and/or audio output devices, such as the reels, lights, speakers, display screens, etc. Part of the enjoyment and excitement of playing certain gaming machines is the initiation or triggering of a bonus game, even before the player knows an amount of a bonus award won via the bonus game.
In certain jurisdictions, regulations require that all wins or awards for a play of a game be displayed or otherwise indicated to a player prior to initiating a subsequent play of the game for the player. Accordingly, when a player of a gaming system of one of these jurisdictions wins a large quantity of awards for a play of a game, the player must then sit through a time consuming award display process in which each of those awards is individually displayed or otherwise indicated to the player. This award display process substantially slows down game play, tempers the player's excitement, and frustrates the player at a time when the player should enjoy winning such a large quantity of awards.
FIG. 1A illustrates a screen shot of an example gaming system of one such jurisdiction. This example gaming system is configured to operate a slot game including ninety-nine paylines. In this example, when a player of the gaming system wins a large quantity of awards, such as an award associated with each of the ninety-nine paylines, the gaming system must display each individual award to the player. In this example, when the player wins an award associated with each payline, the gaming system must display ninety-nine individual awards to the player. While the player may initially be excited, such as when the gaming system is displaying relatively large awards, the player quickly becomes tired of the process, such as when the gaming system is displaying relatively small or nominal awards. This time consuming process feels like a waste of time to the player when the player could otherwise be enjoying actively playing the game (and potentially winning more awards) rather than passively watching an award display cycle.
One proposed solution is directed to a gaming system configured to simultaneously display the awards associated with a plurality of paylines that pass through a same displayed winning symbol combination. In other words, in this proposed solution, if a winning symbol combination (such as A-A-A) is displayed and two paylines each pass through that winning symbol combination, the gaming system simultaneously displays the awards associated with those two paylines. On the other hand, in this proposed solution, if a first instance of a winning symbol combination is displayed along a first payline and a second instance of that same winning symbol combination is displayed along a second different payline that does not overlap the first payline, the gaming system does not simultaneously display the awards associated with those instances of the winning symbol combination. Rather, the gaming system separately displays the awards associated with those instances of the winning symbol combination. This proposed solution thus does not fully solve the problem described above with respect to FIG. 1A because awards associated with multiple instances of a same winning symbol combination may, in certain instances, not be simultaneously displayed. This proposed solution, therefore, is also time consuming and frustrating to players.
FIGS. 1B and 1C illustrate an example embodiment of this proposed solution. As shown in FIG. 1B, the gaming system displayed an A-A-A winning symbol combination that paylines B and C pass through, and another A-A-A winning symbol combination that payline D passes through. Paylines B and C overlap one another along the A-A-A winning symbol combination displayed along the middle row. Accordingly, as shown in FIG. 1B, the gaming system simultaneously displays the awards associated with paylines B and C. Payline D does not, however, overlap paylines B or C. Thus, the gaming system does not simultaneously display the award associated with payline D along with the awards associated with paylines B and C, even though paylines B, C, and D each pass through instances of the same winning symbol combination. Rather, as illustrated in FIG. 1C, the gaming system separately displays the award associated with payline D. Thus, this example gaming system displays the awards associated certain displayed instances of the same winning symbol combination separately rather than simultaneously.
Accordingly, there is a continuing need to provide a gaming system that employs an improved group award presentation to simultaneously display a plurality of similar or identical awards for a play of a game as a group rather than separately displaying each individual award to further increase game play speed, reduce lulls in game play, and increase player enjoyment and excitement.